AEV: Activity Is Returning To The Home Appraisal Sector

17 March 2015 – El Economista

Activity is returning in the home appraisal sector, with increasingly higher growth each quarter; meanwhile the real estate market is stabilising, according to data from the Spanish Association of Value Analysis (AEV).

Thus, the number of building projects valued, which amounted to 179 in the first quarter of 2014, increased to 224 in the second quarter and to 367 in the third quarter.

Similarly, new appraisals of individual homes, which experienced year-on-year growth of 7% during the first half of the year, accelerated to 10% in the third quarter.

Prices are not rising in the same way

However, the recovery in the sector is not being accompanied by an increase in prices, according to the AEV. The average appraisal values for housing blocks continued to decrease to September 2014, from an average value of €1,342/m2 in the first quarter down to €1,262/m2 in the third quarter, i.e. a decrease of 5.9%.

Meanwhile, data regarding detached homes (viviendas unifamiliar) showed stability during the course of the first nine months (of 2014).

For the secretary of AEV, José Manuel Gómez de Miguel, this data “provides statistical confirmation of the recovery in the residential sector and of the solvent demand for credit that had already begun to be felt in 2014”.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake